The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1887-03-12

The riends of Theodore Baker
now confined in the Penitcntiary
here under the sentence of death fol
the murder of man in East Collar
county, this Territory, think it par
ticularly hard that he should be
compelled to mount the gallows
writes a Santa Fe, New Mexico
correspondent of the New York
Sun. The Territorial Supreme
Court has just rendered a decision
in his case affirming the sentence
of death, and fixing the date Of his
execution on the 18th of this month.
The prisoners friends will see if
they cannot get the case before the
United States Supreme Court, on
the ground that Baker has once
been hanged for the crime, and
that the proposal to hang him
again is in violation of the Consti-
tuition of the United States, which
declares that a man shall not be
twice put in jeopardy for the same
offense.
Bakers crime was the killing OF
Frank Uhruh, little more than a
year ago. Uhruh was a surveyor,
and Baker had been asked by him
to keep watch upon the affairs at
Uhruh's ranch while the latter was
absent. In this way Baker and
Mrs. Uhruh struck up an intimacy,
which lasted for some time. Con-
corning the denouement there are
conflicting stories. Baker and the
woman say that Uhruh attacked
Baker, and that the shooting was
in self-defense. Neighboring ranch
ers assert, however, that the liaison
was notorious, and that Baker and
the woman had more than once
threatened to make way with
Uhruh. The position in which the
body of the murdered man was
found, and the fact that bullet
marks in the wall of the room
indicated the shooting was all on
one side, also served to fix the
guilt upon Baker. The prisoner is
a Young man of more than ordinary
intelligence, and the woman, who is
now in Jail at Springer awaiting
trial as an accessory, is prepossess-
ing in appearance.
As soon as Baker was placed
under arrest he was conveyed to
Springer, where he was seized by a
mob and lynched before he could
be put in jail. Murders had been
of free occurrence in that vicinity,
and it was enough for the crowd to
know that the officers had a man
charged with that crime. 1t is not
probable that one man in ten who
participated in the lynching Of
Baker knew anything about the
circumstances of the crime with
which he was charged. Having
hanged him in the regulation style
to the limb of a tree and fastened
the loose end of the rope to the
trunk, the mob watched the dang
ling body for a few minutes and
left the spot, dividing up among
the various saloons of the town,
where the incident created only a
passing sensation. While the lynch
ing was going on the Sheriff was
the affairs near by, and as
soon as he saw the crowd dispense
he ran quickly to the hanging form
and cut it down. With the assis-
lance Of deputy he carried the
body to the back door of the Jail,
and on entering that building and
giving orders not to be disturbed,
he proceeded, with assistance Of a
physician, to revive the prisoner.
Baker had been hanging by the
neck for ten minutes when he was
cut down, and at least fifteen min
,ites more elapsed before the Sher-
iff had him in the Jail. All this
time the prisoner was unconscious
and apparently lifeless. But the
Sheriff went to work on him with
great energy, and after half an hour
of rubbing and the application in
and externally of spirits,
he was rewarded by seeing the man
who had been hanged open his eyes
and look wonderingly about him.
All that night the Sheriff never left
his charge for a minute, and by
of the next day he had
Baker sufficiently revived to breathe
with regularity and to eat in a me-
chanical way some light food.
Thus far no one in Springer
knew of the recovery, except the
Sheriff, his deputy and the doctor,
and it was decided that the matter
should be kept a profound secret
until Baker could be removed to
Santa Fe for safe-keeping. This
was accomplished during the fol-
lowing week, and the man who had
such a strange experience was
placed under the care of competent
physicians here. At first Baker
could not talk at all, but gradually
his thoughts became more collected,
and on several occasions he de-
scribed to visitors his sensations as
he was hanging to the limb from
which he had been loosely swung.